yesterday I got to have some seat time in the 07 STi.
Car is good but it felt heavy when i got in it...everything is just like I expected, awesome but not to the race point of the Evo. What I like about it was the shifter, cherry blossom red trims (details and STi badging for the most), gauges, interior pretty much...the scoop is pretty cool but I heard it starts to rattle when you are going 100+ speeds lol. The steering wheel was awesome but since I had sat on the Evo VIII the day before, it just felt like a good steering wheel compared to the race lookin one on the evo. Oh and thumbs up to that flat engine rumble, wich is nice but as many say, it's a pain in the ass to work on.
...the Evo's seats, although I think they're just a BIT small for my upper back, they held great, I know they'll be a blast with a four point sparco seatbelt. The steering wheel was by no doubt better, more dull, but dull is just how race cars are. I didnt like the gauges, nor any other layouts of the other stuff (radio, a/c, etc) or lack there of, but as we drove the car hard, the feeling of being in a performance/race car, came over and in sort of does the opposite effect on you. You start to like the fact the layout if kind of dull and simple like a race car, you start to like the gauges that give you the feedback of how fckin fast you are taking the turn, and over all, the lightness of the car, gives you a very good feeling of how fast you're going and a very nimble sensation too. I liked the fact it also has the intercooler spray even though it has a FMIC (thought the STi was the only one that had it), makes it even sicker. I guess it would be fun to hook some CO2 to that too lol.
The seats of the STI as like the RX8's...while as the Evo's are very much like the S2K's.
Over all the Evo rocked, and that being an Evo VIII vs an 06 Sti comparison. The STi felt sluggish. It's true what the mags say, the EVO definately gives you more feedback an makes you feel like you are in control even if you're half sideways on a curve.
We also got into a 350Z and the lack of torque sucked, the power is there, but you dont feel it. On the turbochrged 4bangers, you feel the whiplash and then nothing as the rpms increase, when you shift you feel the whiplash again, then nothing (only on 1-3th gear), 4th, 5th and/or 6th gears dont do much feeling wise...this is all because of the torque. The 350Z is just nothin nothin then on high you sort feel it pull you back. But not THAT much, it sort of the same feeling you have on the top end of the turbo'd 4bangers except it pulls you a bit more, which is not much surprising, whiplash is whats fun...anyways, what that upper rpms pull means, is that the rwd hp 350z will slowly creep on ya on top end if you're not careful (talking towards the Speed6...Sti's and Evos have to worry about the 06 and the 07s). The car was way fun driving it hard, since it gives way to donuts and drifting, but ironically, as you have fun on how easy it is to do this, it makes you think how careful you have to be when driving this car....I wouldnt be surprised if a hard acceleration lane switch will make you lose control. Granted, you have to learn how to drive and learn how to control the car, throttle etc...but im just accentuating how easy it to brake this car l0ose. And as we know, most of us have our bad driving days or hte days we are driving extremely exhausted from work, school, gf's house,rainy days, etc and arent paying much attention to drving. So dont know how forgiving this car is to driver error. And no, it wasnt the new 07 Z, it was an 06.
But, all of them as great cars. Hope yall liked my review. Feel free to ask any questions.